


Temporary Discomfort

by sabrina_il (marina)



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Bathing/Washing, Bodily Fluids, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Medical Experimentation, Medical Kink, Men Crying, Needles, Overstimulation, Rutting, Self-Lubrication, Team Feels, Team as Family, everyone is crying, experimental treatment, historical alpha/beta/omega
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:13:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29354775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marina/pseuds/sabrina_il
Summary: “OK,” Nile said, sitting in the large living room with her head in her hands. “So not only were you star-crossed lovers who killed each other and resurrected, you were also an alpha and an omega before you died.”“Yes,” Nicky said, looking a little embarrassed that Nile had somehow not heard of this part of their lives yet.“But not after you died?” Nile asked, raising her head. “For 900 years you’ve been just… betas? Like the rest of us?”“Not quite betas,” Nicky said.AKAThe fic where Joe has his first heat in 900 years, and Nicky scrambles to keep up.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 20
Kudos: 212
Collections: Old Guard Server Exchange





	Temporary Discomfort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Roga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roga/gifts).



> Thank you to snakeling for the beta! All remaining mistakes are my own.

**1**

Joe was sitting on top of Nicky, his hands on the headboard and his legs bracketing Nicky’s face, as he shoved his cock in and out of Nicky’s mouth, giving him room for strategic short breaths between each thrust, never retreating from Nicky’s mouth completely.

They were making so much noise, between Joe’s moaning and the bed banging against the wall, that their neighbors in this upscale neighborhood of Nice, where Andy had bought the house a hundred years ago, could likely hear them across the street. Joe didn’t care - they had just finished a mission where they didn’t have to shed a drop of blood, and dozens of people were safe because of it. 

Andy had suggested Nice as a stopover on their way from Finland to Nigeria, and Joe and Nicky had grabbed it with both hands. 

The pleasure of Nicky’s mouth was indescribable, his lips and tongue and throat muscles milking and massaging Joe, never letting up the pressure, until Joe felt the fire rising from his hips to his chest and ears, and he finally came. Some of it ended up in Nicky’s mouth, some of it on his face. 

Joe moved, bent down and kissed Nicky, both of them breathless. 

Since that disaster with Merrick, since Andy’s renewed mortality, the two of them had made a pact, though they had never said a word to each other about it out loud. 

No more unnecessary deaths. They would lay down their lives to save innocents, of course, why else were they given these gifts if not for that? But they were never risking each other again unless it was absolutely necessary for protecting someone more vulnerable. Who knew how many lives they had left? Neither of them had kept score of who had died more often. Joe was a few years older. Could they trust fate to take their immortality as it had given it, together?

No, the thought of either one of them remaining in this world alone, unable to die, was too much to bear. It had always been a possibility, in the back of their minds, but seeing Andy with bandaids and bruises made the fear real in a way it had never been before. 

That was what Joe thought about, when he kissed his own come from Nicky’s mouth and cheeks and nose. Nicky had only died a single time since that fight at Merrick’s. Joe hadn’t died once. It had been months, and they hadn’t failed a mission, hadn’t compromised on their ideals. It was possible, this thing they were trying. It was possible and it was working. 

“You want to fuck me, hayati?” Joe asked, in between kisses. He’d been especially ravenous lately, to have Nicky’s body, to experience pleasure whenever they had slivers of time. Maybe it was residual effects from what happened with Merrick. They still hadn’t found time to go to Malta, after all. Maybe some proper time off would help settle him. 

“Hmm,” Nicky said, arms roaming over Joe’s shoulders, his back. Joe was naked, but Nicky still had his underwear on, an unacceptable state of affairs. “Are you sure,” Nicky said, in between kisses, “we can make it work today?”

Nicky had been an alpha before his first death, and while neither he nor Joe had retained any of their hormones after their first resurrection, in the same way that neither Andy nor Nile got their periods, Nicky’s body remained what it had been, with a cock meant to fit into an omega’s body. Joe still enjoyed having it inside him, but it took time and preparation, and on some days Joe’s body just wouldn’t cooperate. Neither one of them had enjoyed Joe being in pain over it, after a few brief spells of experimentation. 

Nicky’s hands roamed down to Joe’s ass, Joe’s hips now straddling Nicky’s blue boxer briefs. 

His fingers slipped in further, touching Joe’s hole, rubbing around it. 

“Hmm,” Nicky said, still kissing Joe lazily. His lips parted into a smile. “You prepared already? Without asking me? So presumptuous.” 

Joe laughed. “I haven’t done any preparation, aside from dreaming about riding your cock for the past two days.”

Nicky’s smile got wider. “We were still wrapping up the job two days ago! Did you use all that time I was cleaning the rifles?” He kissed Joe again. “But you’re such a liar, my love. You’ve already made yourself slick for me. When did you manage it?”

“I haven’t!” Joe said, still smiling, trying to guess what game Nicky was playing at, but then Nicky brought his hand back up, to show Joe, and his fingers really were slick with a thick, translucent liquid.

**2**

Andy couldn’t believe this was really happening.

“OK,” Nile said, sitting in the large living room with her head in her hands. “So not only were you star-crossed lovers who killed each other and resurrected, you were also an alpha and an omega before you died.”

“Yes,” Nicky said, looking a little embarrassed that Nile had somehow not heard of this part of their lives yet. 

“But not after you died?” Nile asked, raising her head. “For 900 years you’ve been just… betas? Like the rest of us?”

“Not quite betas,” Nicky said. 

Joe was pacing back and forth behind the sofa Nicky occupied, arms restless, head down, looking more fragile and terrified than Andy had ever seen him. 

They’d called a family meeting, with their resident Modern Life expert Copley, to figure out how to resolve this. 

“Are we certain Joe is going into heat?” Andy asked, as Copley was busy working on a blood testing kit and looking at the readings he’d taken of Joe’s body. 

“Going into is generous,” Copley said. “I’d say he’s in the intermediate stages already. It should be a full heat by tonight.”

Andy ignored the hard flinch in Joe’s posture at those words. 

“How?” Andy asked. “How is that possible? There have been no heats for 900 years.” She looked at Nicky and Joe as she said this, for confirmation, and Nicky nodded minutely. 

Copley looked up, pressing his hands briefly against his eyes. “I don’t know. It shouldn’t be possible. I don’t know how your physiology works, since you won’t let me test you properly - which I totally understand, no need to yell at me about it - but the end result is, I have no idea.” He took a deep, tired breath. “If I had to guess, I’d say it was something Merrick did. If nothing like this had ever happened before, and it’s suddenly happening now, that’s the most logical explanation. Did they give you any hormonal shots?” 

He directed the question at Joe, which wasn’t the best idea.

Joe didn’t stop pacing, but he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to keep them still. “It’s… uh… I don’t know. I wasn’t… I wasn’t really paying attention…” he trailed off, and then turned around, abruptly, and went into the bathroom. Andy could see him turning on the cold water faucet and washing his face under the stream. 

“Not that I noticed,” Nicky said, answering Copley. “Possibly. We were both out of it for some of the time, and a lot of what they did we didn’t understand anyway.” 

“But then why didn’t it work on you?” Copley said, frowning at Nicky. “Did they give you some other cocktail? Surely you two count as a bonded pair, if one of you was going into heat it would trigger a rut in the other, and yet you say you’ve felt no effects?”

Nicky, trying to be solid and brave for Joe, showed the first sign of crumpling since he’d come to grab Andy in the kitchen and drag her into their bedroom. 

“None of that is important,” Andy said, shutting down Copley’s questions. “If it has an effect on Nicky later on, we’ll deal with that. We have to assume, for now, that Nicky will remain unaffected, and decide what we’re going to do. This is new for all of us, Copley, could you give us our options for how people deal with this sort of thing nowadays?”

She didn’t think about Booker and how much easier this would have been if he’d been around to do the research and support them through this. She was not allowed to think about it because Booker had been lying to her for at least a year. No, absolutely not, those thoughts were not an option. 

Copley sighed. “Well, there are a few options. I’ve researched what’s available in this area, and to get emergency help for an omega in need during an unexpected heat we’ll have to go to the hospital--”

“Absolutely not,” Andy said, before Nicky had a chance to. 

“Come on,” Nile said. “In Chicago you can pay a fancy clinic to do it. Most people can’t afford it, but we have the means.”

Copley shook his head. “This specific kind of emergency care is more heavily regulated here. In most of Europe, small, private clinics can’t arrange for an alpha once a heat is already in progress. The risk of a bad match and limited resources to manage the fallout is considered too high. Only hospitals can accept a patient already in heat. Perhaps we could find the right clinic, with flexible doctors and nurses willing to risk it for a bribe, but...”

“It’ll take too much time,” Andy said. 

For a moment, the room was silent. 

“What if we just… do nothing?” Nile asked. “People live through heats all the time without an alpha, right? It’s not unheard of.”

Copley shook his head. “In a medical environment, under close supervision, with experienced staff who can administer the right drugs at the right time. On average a heat for a partnered omega can last up to 48 hours. On its own, it can last for up to two weeks. During that entire time the body’s temperature is elevated, the adrenaline, the lack of appetite or thirst… it can be fatal. Although I suppose that’s not a problem for you.” He looked at Joe, who’d just returned from the bathroom, beard gleaming with wetness. 

He still looked incredibly flushed, to Andy’s eye, so the cold water couldn’t have been that effective. 

Joe looked at Nicky, biting his lip, clenching his fingers into fists.

“That’s not an option,” Nicky said, startling Andy into a frown. His eyes met Andy’s and more words became unnecessary. Ever since watching her almost die for real, her final death, the boys had been terrified of losing each other. 

She’d known, she’d seen it, but now she could see how deep it ran, how it had transformed them. 

“Alright,” Andy said. 

“We’re taking Joe to a hospital?” Nile asked. 

Andy shook her head. “We can’t do that. It’ll end with him in the same kind of lab that did this to him.”

“Do you… know someone local we can work with?” Copley asked. “I wish I did, but all my contacts are in the north.”

“Not that either,” Andy said, getting up. “There’s another way we can try. Though I’m warning you, Nicky, it won’t be a walk in the park.”

She didn’t wait to hear what he said before leaving the room. There was very little time. She’d given all the warning she could, now she had to source the right ingredients and talk to the right people, and bring back some kind of solution before it was too late.

**3**

Nile was not prepared for this. She’d learned about alphas and omegas in bio class, of course, and a little bit in history, but other than that she’d never seen any up close. They were so rare these days.

But Andy had disappeared, and Copley had left awkwardly to work on his own leads, and Joe had seemed like he really, really needed a distraction.

Nile couldn’t pretend to understand the intimate details of their relationship, but she knew having Joe sweaty and flushed, despite taking a cold shower, sitting on a bed wrapped in a towel and long-sleeved shirt, while Nicky was sitting on the floor, in a corner of the room, visibly trying not to hug his knees, was not normal. 

“So,” Nile said, sitting opposite Joe, her legs crossed in front of her, bare feet on the bedding. “How did I not know you were an omega until now? Was I supposed to know? Are there clues I missed because I was born after they invented indoor plumbing?”

Joe chuckled, visibly relieved to have this to focus on. “I’m not an omega,” he said. “I used to be, but when your body doesn’t function… that way anymore, you’re just… you’re something else.”

“Something else?” Nile asked. 

“Immortal, mostly?” Joe said, uncertain. “I suppose we let betas assume we were like them for so long we started thinking of ourselves that way too, over time. It was just one more thing about us no one needed to know about.”

“But your bodies… stayed the same, right?” Nile asked. “I mean, physically?”

“They did,” Joe smiled. 

“Wow, that’s…” Nile tried to imagine having a boyfriend who was an alpha. It wasn’t impossible - alphas and omegas weren’t obligated to only date each other or anything - but it would be… a lot. She was glad her back was to Nicky, so she wasn’t even tempted to look at him right then. “So… what does it feel like? Heat, I mean.”

Joe closed his eyes for a long moment. “It feels like if I let myself really think about it, for even a minute, I’ll never be able to stop.” He opened his eyes. “Tell me a story, Nile. About... Anything. Tell me about your life.” 

His voice cracked a little towards the end, and though it wasn’t the most flattering way to be asked to tell someone about yourself, Nile understood. 

So, she told Joe about her favorite cartoons as a kid, about the teachers she most hated in middle school, about her best friend in high school and how they went to prom together. She told him about the girls from basic, about her brother’s hobbies, about the food her mom made for Thanksgiving every year, and how Nile didn’t cherish it until she enlisted. 

Joe nodded and hmm’d through all of it, focusing on her intently, devouring the words, asking follow up questions. She knew this was just filling time, but she had no doubt Joe would remember everything she said, or at least try to. They never had time for this sort of thing, but Joe loved people, loved listening to their stories, loved learning about their lives. 

As time passed he moved farther and farther away from her, on the bed. He changed positions until he was propped up against the headboard, surrounded by pillows, including one in his lap. 

By the time Nile got around to her mother’s cooking, glad to share this part of herself but also struggling with the suddenly overwhelming feelings about never tasting it again, Joe’s eyes were closed, and his head was resting against the wall, like he was very, very tired. 

“I’ll make it for you,” he said quietly. “It won’t be as good, but we’ll have Thanksgiving this year. I promise.”

Nile closed her eyes against the sharpness, trying to keep the tears back. She was fine, really. It had been months. She knew she was dead now, living on some borrowed magical time. She didn’t have the right to be angry about all the things she missed, she had to be grateful for the new life she’d been given. Because it was either be grateful or go join Booker wherever he was now, getting his head on straight. 

She felt hands touch her shoulders, gently, from behind. She turned to see Nicky. 

“Thank you, Nile,” he said. 

She turned back to look at Joe and realized the time when he could be distracted by talking about turkey and cornbread was over. He looked like whatever was happening to him was consuming all of his attention. Eyes closed, teeth biting into his lower lip, arms wrapped around himself. He barely looked like he knew where he was. 

“I hope Andy comes back soon,” Nile said, forcing herself to get up from the bed. She wanted to hug Joe, get him a glass of water, something. But she could tell he needed Nicky now. The best she could do was give them space.

“Me too,” Nicky said, sitting on the bed. “You helped so much, Nile. We’re both very grateful.”

In a fit of… something, she bent down to kiss Nicky’s hair. Maybe as a substitute for touching Joe, maybe because she was too emotional right now, suddenly too raw, and she wanted to offer him some comfort. 

He didn’t act like she was being weird. Instead he brought one of her hands to his lips and kissed it, the way lords did with ladies in old paintings. 

She didn’t look back when she closed the door.

**4**

“Can I take your shirt off?” Nicky asked. Joe looked like he needed all the help he could get, right now.

Joe shook his head.

“Can I get you some ice?” Nicky asked. He was sitting on the bed, feet on the floor, not the farthest he could be from Joe but close to it. 

Joe shook his head again. 

“I know you won’t eat, but can you still drink? I think that would be good, right now,” Nicky said. 

Another shake.

“Do… do you want me to leave?” Nicky asked. 

Joe was silent for a long moment, breathing heavily. It was like he’d gotten drastically less coherent, once Nile had left the room. He’d been holding himself together with sheer determination while she was here. 

“Please,” he said finally. “Stay.”

Nicky crossed his arms over his chest, to keep himself from reaching for Joe. “My love, why are you still dressed? You’re making this harder than it has to be.”

Joe opened his eyes, finally, flashing a look at Nicky that wasn’t positive, but was at least a spark of something. “Hayati, in 900 years, that’s the most alpha thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

Nicky clenched his teeth. “If I was a real alpha this would be over already.” He unwound his hands and moved closer to Joe on the bed. “I don’t want to see you suffer any more than necessary. Please, let me help. Let me do something.”

“Nicky…” Joe said, his voice breaking. He closed his eyes again. “If you touch me, I’m afraid I’ll just… unravel,” his voice was a whisper. “I can’t recover from your hands, Nicolo. I can’t go back once I have you.”

Nicky slowly, carefully moved up the bed, until he was sitting right next to Joe, a breath away, though they weren’t touching. 

“But I’m here, amore,” Nicky said. “I’m clear headed and unaffected. As much as it feels like a curse, right now, it also means I can do for you what I could never do in my first life.” Nicky put his hand on Joe’s, feeling the clammy skin. “Let yourself take what you want, I’ll pull you back if necessary.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Joe whispered, wetness gathering around his closed eyes. 

“Doesn’t it?” Nicky asked. “We’ve never been here before. We don’t know the rules.”

Nicky couldn’t tell whether Joe was convinced or simply tired of arguing, but he grabbed Nicky’s hand and pushed it underneath his shirt. 

The fabric rode up, and Joe used Nicky’s hand to rub against a nipple, moaning softly, like he’d been denied release for days, not hours, and in the next moment Nicky was on top of him, kissing him and pinching and rubbing at his nipples. 

The towel, soaked with Joe’s slick by now, unraveled as they rearranged themselves on the bed. Joe was sitting up, and Nicky was on top of him. In two quick movements Joe’s shirt was pulled over his head and tossed aside. 

After getting his initial taste of Joe’s mouth, Nicky pulled away, hands still caressing Joe’s chest, to assess the status of Joe’s cock. 

He rubbed a clothed leg against Joe’s balls, his erection, and Joe moaned even louder, like he was already close to orgasm. 

“Will this help?” Nicky asked, bending so his arm could grasp Joe’s cock easily. 

“Yes,” Joe said, breathless. “Maybe?” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“No harm in trying,” Nicky said, pushing his hand down further, below Joe’s balls, where he was covered entirely in slick. Nicky wanted his fingers just wet enough to make the handjob smooth for Joe. 

He grabbed Joe a little too tightly, like Joe liked, and gave him one thorough stroke after another, while his mouth was busy stealing the wild sounds from Joe’s lips. 

Joe’s arms were wrapped tightly around Nicky’s back and shoulders, fingers digging in, and within a minute Joe’s moans escalated and his whole body jerked against Nicky as he came. 

Nicky kept kissing Joe, more slowly now. His cheeks, his nose, his beard. 

When Joe opened his eyes they were more dazed than before. 

His cock was, miraculously, somehow still hard. 

Nicky had never encountered anything like this, in his first life. He’d been an alpha, he had no experience with omegas who took betas to bed during their heats. He knew a beta couldn’t break a heat, but he thought any little bit of relief would help. 

Joe was breathing heavily again, and it wasn’t from the exertion. He held his breathing for a moment and then let out a low, keening sound, folding in on himself. 

Nicky let him go, didn’t get in the way, let Joe bring his knees up, curl up on his side, his cock and stomach still covered in come. 

“It’s worse,” Joe whispered. There were tears in his eyes. “Somehow it’s even worse now.”

Nicky took a step back, on his knees on the bed, and then another, until his feet were on the ground and he nearly fell over. He kept walking backwards until his back hit a wall. 

“I’m so sorry,” he said, in a language that wasn’t English. He didn’t know what he was speaking anymore, all he could think about was Joe’s body, naked, miserable, curled in on itself. 

Joe’s hands were shaking when he wiped at his eyes. 

“Should I go?” Nicky asked. He was speaking Italian, he realized now. 

“Come here,” Joe said, now under a thin blanket that reached to his armpits. 

Nicky hesitated before coming to the bed. He didn’t want to hurt Joe again. 

There must have been a time, hundreds of years ago, when he’d felt any semblance of awkwardness or uncertainty regarding Joe’s naked body, but he no longer remembered what that time was like. 

Now, suddenly, everything felt completely new. 

“Lie down with me,” Joe said, eyes closing again. 

Nicky did, not taking any of his clothes off, since Joe hadn’t asked him to. He was lying on top of the blanket, and Joe was lying under it, and the intention behind this move became clear very quickly. 

Joe cuddled up to Nicky, as if they were struggling to stay warm on a cold night. Through the blanket, Joe threw a leg over Nicky’s hips, bringing their groins together, and slowly, deliberately rubbed himself against Nicky. 

Joe’s face was a mixture of relief and frustration, and Nicky was torn between wanting to fix it somehow, and being transfixed by Joe finally finding some measure of pleasure and control. Joe had been right - Nicky didn’t know what any of this was like, so at least Joe had found some compromise he was willing to indulge in, that was his own. 

Nicky caressed Joe’s face and hair, gave him small kisses, as the two of them rutted against each other, like two disciples constrained by the rules of their faith, testing the limits to the very edge. 

By the time Andy came to find them, Joe was half on top of Nicky, rubbing his nipples against the blanket and Nicky’s chest, riding Nicky’s hip in long, slow strokes from Joe’s pubic bone all the way back to his ass, making small, incoherent sounds as he did it. 

It took Andy standing in the doorway, saying Nicky’s name, for him to notice her. Joe didn’t even look up. 

“Come on,” Andy said, looking over the both of them, before walking away, leaving the door open, clearly expecting Nicky to follow her. 

Nicky knew rationally that he was not in a rut, if only because he could still form coherent thoughts, but it also felt like he’d been hard for hours. He took three deep breaths before gently pushing Joe away, so he could extricate himself.

*

Andy stood outside, arms crossed over her chest, next to Nile, who had a look of determination Nicky had come to associate with her being on duty. Sometimes Nile’s face got a particular focus, a particular hardness to it, and Nicky could practically see the uniform materialize on her body. 

“The faster we do this, the easier it’ll be,” Andy said. “Nile will handle Joe, you and me can go into the other room.”

Nicky nodded, having no doubts that whatever Andy’s plan was, it was their best chance at resolving this quickly. 

He followed Andy into the other bedroom, where she had a briefcase and various items laid out on the bed. From the other room, he could hear the sounds of Joe pleading with Nile, begging her to bring Nicky back to him. 

Nicky was about to leave again, to reassure him, to kiss him and hold him until Joe was more coherent again, but Andy grabbed his shoulder. 

“Seeing you only makes it worse,” she said. “Remember he’s not himself right now. Give him time to come around.”

“I have to go to him,” Nicky said. “I can’t… I can’t just…”

“You’re not his alpha,” Andy said, in that way she had of being painfully, brutally honest. An honesty more violent than any weapon she carried, wielded with loving precision and devastating accuracy. “He wants you because you’re his only comfort in all this, but there’s nothing you can do for him right now. Don’t torture yourself, or him. Let Nile handle him.” 

“I can’t just leave him like this,” Nicky whispered, while he heard Joe crying in the next room. It sounded like Nile had gotten him out of the bed. 

“You can spend your time comforting him,” Andy nodded. “And then letting go of you will be even harder, every time you step away. Or we can get started on something that might finally resolve this, without him needing to die.”

“Then let’s get him in here,” Nicky said. “It won’t be a problem if we’re together.”

“You don’t want him in the room for this,” Andy said, dragging over a wooden chair with high arms for Nicky to sit in. 

“There’s never a room I don’t want Joe in,” Nicky said. 

“He sees this,” Andy said, not waiting for Nicky to do as he’s told, but going over to her supplies laid out on the bed and picking up a few tablets. “In the state he’s in, he’s going to lose it. And then what you have to do becomes a thousand times harder. Which means more time wasted for both of you to calm down, which means his heat gets worse, and we lose our chance of success.”

She walked over and presented the tablets to Nicky in the open palm of her hand. “Take the pink one first, then the two white ones.” 

Nicky could still hear Joe outside, but he was near the bathroom now, and Nile was with him, and he sounded calmer. She was talking to him the entire time, trying to soothe him. 

Nicky took a deep breath. 

“Still undecided?” Andy asked. 

Nicky shook his head. “I trust you, boss.”

He took the tablets and swallowed them dry. 

*

“These are just a precaution,” Andy said, when she tied Nicky’s arms to the chair. “But you might thank me for it later.”

Nicky was naked, his clothes folded neatly on the bed. Andy knelt between his legs with a syringe and something that looked like a sturdy medical thread, but Andy assured him was actually very special, thin tubing. 

She’d already injected him twice, once in the arm directly into the vein, and once in the soft tissue of his ass. Her contact, an experimental scientist who lived in Lisbon and guided her through acquiring the supplies for the procedure he’d designed but had only tested a few times, told her the tablets and injections had to follow a specific schedule. 

No one knew whether it would work on Nicky, but according to Andy it was his best chance at temporarily transforming his body back into an alpha-like state. If he could produce alpha pheromones, it would affect Joe’s heat, helping to lessen its severity or maybe even stopping it entirely. The procedure wouldn’t be like sustaining an injury, but like creating a modification in his body, like an earring, or a haircut. It would last up to 12 hours, which would give Nicky a reasonable window of time. 

“This next part is the worst one,” Andy warned him, for the third time, on her knees between his legs.

“I’m ready,” Nicky assured her. This was nothing, he would do this every hour of every day if it meant preventing Joe’s suffering. 

Andy inserted the needle into the base of Nicky’s cock, right where it connected with the rest of his body. 

The pain made him gasp, clench every muscle, including his fists. 

“Need something?” Andy asked, and Nicky nodded. He thought he could keep quiet throughout this procedure, but now that he understood the magnitude of the pain, he didn’t want to risk it. Joe seemed to be calm and quiet now, but if he heard Nicky screaming he’d barge in here, and Andy was right. It would lead to nothing good. 

Andy left the needle where it was and got up, bringing back a thin towel and wrapping it around Nicky’s mouth, letting him bite down on it, before tying it in a knot behind his head. 

Her fingers brushed against his eyebrow, and she gave him a questioning look. Nicky shook his head. He didn’t need a blindfold. It would be worse if he couldn’t tell which step of the process they were on. It was better if he could see. 

Andy got back into position and pushed the needle through, fully, piercing Nicky’s skin like she was sewing a pattern. 

The pain was at its worst when the needle was in him. Somehow, once the tubing-thread was pulled through, it looked less terrifying and felt like something he could almost handle. 

“The synthetic hormones need to be administered this way,” Andy said, as she pushed the needle in again, for the next stitch, moving down Nicky’s cock. “If we want any chance of them working immediately. He said some people do this voluntarily, you know. People who can’t resurrect.” 

The pain got worse with every stitch, which Nicky should have anticipated. It built on itself, increasing. There were bits of tubing sticking out of Nicky now, and bits of it buried in him, and his penis felt like every inch of it was on fire. 

“You’re hyperventilating,” Andy said, without pausing what she was doing, pushing the needle in again. 

She was right, Nicky realized. He was breathing much too quickly, his heart rate was out of control. The pain was overwhelming, all-consuming. His entire groin was a chasm of it. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. He’d known pain before. He’d had every bone in his body broken, he’d been run over by a carriage, poisoned, suffocated. He could remember at least three times when he had been tortured extensively, not counting Merrick, and that was just off the top of his head. 

He tried to think of Joe and the stories he knew of his days as an omega. They’d told each other of every encounter, every person they’d known, every bit of their lives apart, over time. 

Joe’s last heat… Nicky tried to remember the story, instead of focusing on how his body wanted to destroy the chair he was sitting on, tear off the ropes and flee. 

A few months before the siege. Joe was a soldier, and the military kept omegas and alphas in the same regiments, so they could spend heats and ruts with each other. Joe’s usual partner had been injured during a training exercise, still in recovery. So, Joe was assigned a different alpha instead. 

Joe had said he was older, by maybe a decade. Handsome. Nicky remembered Joe’s drawing of his features. His body. His cock. Joe had a wonderful memory for all parts of human anatomy. 

Joe had been grateful to get someone so experienced, as a last minute replacement. The heat had lasted for… a day and a half, maybe?

Nicky opened his eyes, Andy still had two stitches to go, at least. He grunted and gritten his teeth. 

“Almost done,” she said, without looking up at him. 

Nicky closed his eyes again. Joe’s older alpha had kept his cock inside Joe for almost the entire time they were together. Joe had been on top, Nicky was fairly certain, because of an old shoulder injury the man had, keeping him from leaning on his arms for hours. 

_I spent most of the time riding him,_ Joe had said. _Milking his cock until he knotted me. He was bigger than my usual partner, I remember that was an adjustment._

Nicky swallowed against that mental image. He’d always assumed - they’d both always assumed - that chapter of their lives would never be open to each other. But now, maybe. If this worked, maybe, finally, Nicky could know what Joe was like, back then. 

“Done,” Andy said, and Nicky opened his eyes. 

He was calmer now. The pain was a pulsing, ravenous mouth all around his cock. 

“Now comes the truly worst part,” Andy said. 

Nicky huffed out a breath. He could do this. It was this or watching Joe die unnecessarily, he would slice himself open to avoid that. 

“This tubing is soaked in the material, I’m going to leave it in for a few minutes, and then I’m going to pull it out,” Andy said. “It has to come out fast, all in one go.”

For that part, Nicky did end up screaming. 

*

“How do I know it’s worked?” Nicky asked, catching his breath, lying on the floor, still naked. The pain was only a phantom now, his body already healed from the small pricks of the needle. 

“You don’t,” Andy said, sitting next to him. “I’d pray if I was the praying sort. That’s pretty much our best shot.”

Nicky took a deep breath and sat up, reaching for his clothes. “Thank you, Andy,” he said, once he had his pants on, before leaning over and kissing Andy’s cheek. 

“I hope it works,” she sighed. “Give it a few minutes, just in case. Supposedly it can take a bit to kick in.”

Nicky found Joe in the bathroom. Nile was sitting on the floor, leaning against the tiles, flipping through a book. Joe was inside the tub, filled with clear, cold water, submerged to his chest. 

His head was resting against the rim of the tub, eyes closed, mouth slightly open. 

“What are you reading him?” Nicky asked, walking in through the open door. 

Nile closed the book, keeping her finger in as a bookmark, and showed him the cover. “Poetry.”

Nicky nodded. Joe hated poetry, normally, he could see why right now it would serve as a good way to ground him. 

“Thank you, Nile,” Nicky said, for the second time that day. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“Thanks, Nile,” Joe mumbled as well, and Nile smiled at them and rose to her feet before leaving the bathroom, closing the door behind herself. 

“You’re barefoot, hayati,” Joe said, cracking open one eye and looking Nicky over. “And I’m very, very wet,” he added, and then started laughing, in small fits, disturbing the smooth surface of the water.

**5**

Joe had Nicky in his hands again, under his fingers, between his legs, over his chest, lips to Nicky’s lips, and suddenly the world was no longer so scary.

He still ached all over, like every cell in his body was screaming, and the more time passed the louder the screaming got, but he had Nicky now, and they were on a soft bed together, and that made everything better. 

“Andy did something,” Nicky said, in between kisses, insisting on saying words instead of pressing every inch of his skin to Joe’s. They both knew the stupid hormones would keep torturing Joe until he either died or by some miracle this unnatural heat stopped plaguing him, but that was no reason to withhold Nicky’s mouth from him for even one second. 

“Please, cuore mio, listen,” Nicky was saying, and Joe tried to focus on the words, because Nicky was being insistent. “Andy did something, and I think it’s working. I feel… different. I think… I think it might work. We have to try.”

Work? In what way? Joe pulled Nicky down again, tired of not tasting him. His hands roamed over Nicky’s skin, his hair. Why wasn’t Nicky doing the same to him? Was he not as hungry for this as Joe was?

No, of course not. Nicky was unaffected, while Joe had to live through this nightmare, a twisted, ugly echo of his mortal life, because he’d been unlucky enough to be affected by whatever Merrick did to them. 

Nicky was still wearing a pair of pants, though they’d slid down his thighs from Joe’s grinding, and even that was unacceptable. Joe huffed and pushed and prodded at the fabric, and heard Nicky’s amused snort as they both got rid of the pants and Joe tossed them unceremoniously to the floor. 

Nicky’s hands were on him, properly on him now. They were lying on their sides, kissing, and Joe hooked a leg over Nicky’s thigh, rubbing his cock against Nicky’s smooth skin. 

Joe’s cock was a safe bet. Everything south of it had always been more sensitive for him, during heat. It took him a while to remember, but eventually the sensations came back, the fragmented bits and pieces he still remembered from his mortal life. 

His hole was a pulsing, aching muscle. Every time Joe breathed he could feel the itching, the desperate need to be touched, filled, knotted, drowned in alpha come until his belly was full of it. Nothing helped that ache, except real alpha pheromones. The tingling tenderness extended all the way around his groin. 

But his cock was the best possible compromise. He could rub it against Nicky, and feel good, and maybe eventually come, and it would be a hurt he could survive. Touching Nicky was worth it. 

Nicky’s hands rubbed along Joe’s thigh, his hip, over his ass, sliding deeper inside, fingertips caressing Joe’s opening and every part of Joe spasmed. He cried out, mewling into the crook of Nicky’s shoulder.

Everything about pain and consequences forgotten in that moment, it felt so good to be touched, to have Nicky’s hands there, he wanted more of it, needed more of it, even as a distant, muted part of his brain was yelling something about how he’d regret it if he let a beta do this to him during a heat.

But what did his brain know? Joe only had his instincts to rely on, in his mortal life he’d never gone through a heat like this. When he was growing up, his first few heats were years apart and lasted no more than a day without anyone’s intervention. And by the time he was old enough he was a soldier, and there was never any danger of finding himself without a willing alpha. 

“You’re so wet, habibi,” Nicky whispered, in between planting kisses on Joe’s face. His fingers were rubbing, massaging Joe’s hole, and Joe’s body reacted like Nicky was touching raw nerves. “I’ve never seen you like this,” Nicky whispered. “In all our lives, never before. Let me fuck you, ayuni. Please, I think it might work this time.”

Joe was practically writhing from Nicky’s touch. He was so hungry, every part of his body wanted to be consumed by Nicky, become one with his flesh. Joe nodded frantically, changing his position, bringing his hips closer, rubbing his hole against Nicky’s hardness. 

Joe had seen Nicky’s cock too many times to count, but right now it really did look like the cock of an alpha in rut, at least from what Joe could remember. It was dark red and massive, the head like a perfect, delicious prize that would slide into Joe and make him forget about how much everything in his body hurt. 

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Joe kept muttering to himself as he positioned himself, positioned Nicky, and sank his hips down. Despite the awkward angle, Nicky’s cock breached him and slid slowly inside. 

There was no preparation needed, no lubricant, no questions about whether Joe was in pain. There was no pain, only bliss. Joe wanted to cry with how good it felt, to have something inside him, but he was too busy moaning so loudly the entire neighborhood could probably hear him. 

Nicky’s cock was perfect, the slide of it in and out was the best sensation Joe had ever felt, and Nicky, his beautiful, perfect Nicky, shifted and moved them, without ever breaking his rhythm or removing himself from where Joe needed him to be, so that the angle was less awkward, and thrusting was easier. Joe was on his back fully, one leg around Nicky’s hips, one spread wide on the bed, and Nicky was pushing into him, their faces above each other.

Nicky’s mouth tasted so good. His tongue, his lips, they were like candy, his skin was like soft clouds of pleasure, but his cock, oh his cock was good and Joe wanted to yell about it to the world. 

“Shh,” Nicky said, laughing, breaking their pattern of kisses, leaning his weight on one hand and using the other to cover Joe’s mouth. “Everyone in this house already knows you love every part of me, amore, no need reminding them about my cock specifically.”

Joe was laughing as well, both of them were shaking and thrusting and laughing, and the pleasure of it was ramping up and up and up until Joe felt his cock jerk between them, coming untouched. 

It had been like this, before, he remembered. Sometimes, when it was good, when he was so deeply into it. He would come like this, before his alpha, and then the sensation of being filled would be even more amazing. He was even more sensitive now, and Nicky was so close, Joe could tell.

“So perfect, hayati,” Nicky was murmuring. “Love you so much,” and then Nicky was coming, and Joe could feel it, feel the pulsing of his cock, feel the come filling him with more sticky wetness. 

Nicky came, but… there was no knot. 

Joe’s body could tell almost immediately, while Nicky was still getting his bearings, trying to understand his own body after whatever Andy had done. 

Joe could feel the crushing pain of it coming before it overwhelmed him, before it settled into his bones. For a few seconds, while Nicky was breathing harshly, not moving, waiting perhaps to see what his body would do, Joe felt his chest constricting. There was a lump of something hard and unforgiving, and it reached his throat just as the first wave of pain hit him, and then the tears were unstoppable. 

“I love you so much, Nicolo,” Joe said, already choking on a sob. “Please, go get your rifle.”

Nicky’s face looked like he’d just been hit with acid. He moved away from Joe, his cock slipping out and somehow that made everything ten times worse. Joe curled in on himself, trying to hold his body together. This would get worse, he knew. He could feel more waves of it coming. 

“Please, my love,” Joe said, feeling like his insides were ripping themselves apart. He had to be coherent enough, to make Nicky listen to him. There was always a room, wherever they stayed, where Nicky kept all his favorite guns, unless they kept everything with them wherever they slept. 

“No, Joe, please, no,” Nicky was saying, there were tears in his eyes as well, and Joe was sobbing in earnest now, curled in on himself. 

“What if you… I can’t, Yusuf…” Nicky was saying, his eyes red, the droplets falling on the sheets before he could wipe them off. “Please, I was so close, I could feel it. I could taste it, like in another few seconds the knot would be there. We just need more time, Andy said it would take time to work, just wait a little bit, please, my love, please.”

Joe was in the worst of it now, the harshest, most all-consuming misery of heat, but he tried to tell himself it could only get better from here. The waves would ebb, the air would return to his lungs, his body would become habitable again. 

“I can feel you now,” Nicky was saying. “Your body is affecting mine. I didn’t think I remembered what being in a rut felt like, but I’m starting to. The need to touch you, to have my mouth on you, to be inside you, it’s starting to become overwhelming. I can feel it prickling all along my skin. I’m so close my love,” his voice broke on a sob. “We don’t even know if a death would reset your body from this, or if you’d wake up still in heat. None of it should be possible. And I’m so, so close to making this better for you. Please, give me one more chance.”

Joe heard the words, let them wash over him, and allowed the sound of Nicky’s voice to soothe the sharpest edges. The worst of the pain was behind him. His body still felt like it was trying to tear itself apart, but it was easier now to remember his promises. They’d told each other, silently, that they would avoid death if at all possible, and Joe wanted to keep his end of the bargain. He’d been through such terrible torture in his long life, he could give Nicky one more chance.

“Tell me a story,” Joe said, through closed eyes and clenched teeth. “Your voice… it helps.”

“What should I tell you, ayuni?” Nicky agreed immediately, and Joe could hear him sitting back on his heels on the bed, trying to brush away the tears. “What story would you like?”

“Do you remember the last time you knotted someone?” Joe said. “You told me a few times, but it’s been so many centuries… tell me again.”

He heard Nicky take a deep breath, and after that his voice was steadier. 

“It was in Ramla, I think,” he said. “The city was nearly empty of people when we entered it, and full of supplies. Jerusalem was so close by. It was the worst time to go into a rut, and several of us did at the same time. You remember, it was considered an advantage among my people to be an alpha when traveling to the holy land, so there were way too many alpha knights, and not many omegas.”

It made Joe laugh. He did remember that part of Nicky’s stories, but it was hilarious now in a way it hadn’t been for centuries after their first deaths. But enough time had passed now, and they could both let the past be. 

“We managed to drag one omega down with us,” Nicky said. “A man from Bavaria who shared a bedroll with one of the other alphas. The three of us spent a full day with him, and thanked the good Lord his heat had lasted long enough to satisfy all our ruts, though just barely. I think I got to knot him… maybe twice?”

Joe began laughing even harder, the joy of it lessening the pain he still felt. 

“After the first time,” Nicky said. “I was terrified one omega for all of us wouldn’t be enough. I told one of the other alphas, his name was Henri, I believe, that we should make a pact to knot each other, if the Bavarian didn’t satisfy.”

Joe’s laughter was so all-consuming now, he could hardly draw breath. 

“It wasn’t my finest hour,” Nicky admitted. “I think we were both too addled to think straight. But if that man’s rut hadn’t been satisfied there’s a chance I would have stuck to the bargain out of pride and honor and we would never have met, because I would have stayed behind to recover from my injuries.”

Joe laughed so hard he tilted off the bed and fell to the floor, graceless and clumsy. He heard Nicky gasp, but by the time Nicky came over to him Joe was still laughing.

Nicky reached a hand down to him, and when Joe looked up he saw Nicky’s face was lit with the most brilliant smile. 

“How are you feeling?” Nicky said, as Joe grabbed his arm and pulled himself up. 

“Better,” Joe said. The pain was still there, but it was the dull ache of the heat again, and not the horror of before. “I have maybe a few more minutes, before the need gets to be too much and I get fuzzy again.”

“Good,” Nicky said, pulling Joe closer. “Because I’ve been hard almost from the moment you moved away.”

Joe raised his eyebrows in surprise. That wasn’t Nicky’s normal stamina. It wasn’t anyone’s stamina, except alphas during a rut. 

They fell on the bed again. Joe was covered in slick and come, and so were the sheets, and so was, progressively, Nicky. 

They kissed and shifted, moving lazily but inexorably into a favorable position. 

“How would you like to be knotted, ayuni?” Nicky asked, kissing down Joe’s chest, gently sucking each of his nipples. 

The thought of it, of truly being knotted by his Nicky, was enough to double the slick pouring out of Joe’s hole. Nicky’s mouth wasn’t helping matters. Joe could already feel coherency slipping away. 

“Not me on my back, I think,” Nicky said. “It’s a fine position for strangers, but I want to have you near me afterwards, I want your mouth and your eyes, and I’ve heard omegas say it’s uncomfortable to bend down fully in that position, pulls on the knot, can be painful.”

Joe was moaning, hands buried in Nicky’s hair, already losing himself. 

“If you don’t fuck me right now, cuore mio,” Joe said. “I might drown us together, in this bed.”

Nicky laughed. “An enviable death.” He kissed Joe again, and then pushed him to lie on his stomach, knees under him. “Let’s start like this,” Nicky said, and finally pushed into Joe’s opening. 

Joe yelled, loudly, and heard Nicky moan in response. 

They were really in it now, together, feeling the same electricity flow between them. Nicky began thrusting, and a few seconds into his efforts Joe could no longer tell whether he was the one projecting his need onto Nicky, or whether it was the other way around. 

This time felt different, like everything Joe felt was amplified, like the ache in his body was slowly growing silent, replaced by nothing but divine, excessive pleasure, that spilled out of him as sounds and curses and praises to God. 

Nicky’s mouth was licking his back, as if trying to absorb every bit of Joe’s fluids, and Joe felt an absence, a hole in his chest because he wanted Nicky’s lips too. He wanted to taste him, to see him. 

He whined, and Nicky kept thrusting into him, hard enough to rattle the bed and the bedside table and the entire house, it felt like, and murmured “I know, love, I know, just a bit longer.”

The pleasure was ramping up and up, tangling in Joe’s stomach, his balls, his chest, his arms. Every part of him was being penetrated by Nicky, and every part of him took joy in it. 

Finally he felt the familiar sensation, a tightness that escalated and ended with an orgasm, his internal muscles squeezing Nicky for all he was worth. A minor pleasure, setting up a greater one, for Joe. 

He was oversensitized again, everywhere. Nicky’s mouth was still not comforting his, and Joe felt the tears returning, the sobs about to overtake him, when Nicky sat back and dragged Joe with him. He didn’t pull out, but he rearranged them, somehow, skillfully, gracefully, until Nicky was sitting propped up against the headboard, and Joe was on top of him, sitting in the cradle of Nicky’s hips. 

They were still joined, but now they could kiss and touch each other properly, and Joe was crying again, because it couldn’t be helped. Because he believed that this time, it would work, and Nicky would knot him. Because if he couldn’t, Joe’s body would react in a way that would feel worse than any death. 

“You’re so wet, all over, ayuni,” Nicky said, kissing the tears from Joe’s cheeks. They were still fucking, but slowly. Not a lot of leverage in this position, for either of them, but Joe didn’t care.

Slow was good, it suited his sensitive nerves. It made the climb up more gentle, less like being thrown into a cold ocean, more like floating upwards in a balloon. 

“You’re so good at this,” Joe said, kissing Nicky’s mouth. 

“You’re surprised?” Nicky asked, smiling, in between kisses. 

“It’s taken you a while to remember?” Joe asked, and Nicky nodded immediately, agreeing. 

For Joe too, his body, his instincts, his sense memory of all of this, it took a while for it to catch up with him. Clearly the same had been happening to Nicky. 

“I’m so close,” Nicky said, his eyes closing, his mouth slack for Joe’s kisses. “Yusuf, it’s almost…”

And then he was coming, covering Joe’s insides with his orgasm, and a moment later both of them felt the beginnings of his knot. Nicky groaned, like he was being punched in the stomach, and Joe sobbed, with relief and joy from the fact they could share this between them, after all these years of being alive. 

Nicky had been right. The position was perfect. Joe sat on Nicky’s knot, enjoying its size and fullness, enjoying how it grounded him and stretched him. Neither one of them cared about keeping every drop of Nicky’s seed inside Joe’s body, and this way they could spend long minutes holding each other, feeling each other’s bodies, kissing and licking each other, remembering their human days and their habits with partners who were strangers compared to who they were to each other.

**6**

“Is it safe to come in?” Nile asked, opening the door slightly. It wasn’t locked because Joe and Nicky had both been born too early to understand the concept of locked doors inside a private residence.

She heard a vague hrmpf sound, probably from Joe, and ventured inside. Andy came in after her. She’d feigned utter calm and coolness while the proceedings were going on, but when Nile suggested checking on the boys, she’d tacitly agreed it would be a good idea.

There hadn’t been any screaming or yelling or moaning coming from their room for at least an hour. 

Joe was lying on his back on the bed, Nicky lying half on top of his chest. A sheet was draped very deliberately over Nicky’s ass and Joe’s groin, even though the bed was covered in fluids so the white, sticky sheet didn’t hide much. 

Still, Nile appreciated them trying. They didn’t always understand 21st century norms about modesty, but for her sake, they gave it their best shot. 

“Glad to see everyone's alive,” Andy said. 

“You did it, boss,” Nicky said, sounding exhausted, his eyes still closed. Joe was running idle fingers through his hair. “It worked.”

“We heard,” Andy said. “Several times.”

Joe chuckled. 

“Is it over?” Nile asked. “Are you… not in heat anymore?”

“No, it’s still going,” Joe said. “Will probably last until tonight. But it’s different now, because Nicky is…”

He stumbled over calling Nicky an alpha, Nile realized. They’d spent so long getting used to not using those labels. 

“Because Andy’s plan worked,” Nicky filled in. “But apparently I’m very out of practice.”

Joe kissed the top of his head. “That’s alright. Most alphas could never keep up with me for more than one knot without feeling exhausted.”

Nicky raised his head and narrowed his eyes at Joe.

“Boys, don’t make me throw you into a cold shower,” Andy said. “Just fuck like reasonable people and be done with it. Copley has the details on our next job. I’d like to leave tonight.”

“Tonight?” Nile asked, startled. She would have assumed they’d stay in this house for at least a few days, to let Joe and Nicky recover. But she kept forgetting how many ordeals all of them had been through, over time. 

Recovery meant something else for them. 

“I’ll report on the state of my ass in a few hours, boss,” Joe nodded. 

“Good,” Andy said, before walking out. “Nile and I will be waiting for updates.”

“I’m really not…” Nile said. “It’s OK, as far as I’m concerned, you guys can… I mean…”

Nicky blew her a kiss, and Joe smiled at her, and Nile breathed a sigh of relief and left the room, not bothering to close the door again.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are ♥!


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